Pets outnumber children 4 to 1 in America

'Educated, middle-class people have all but stopped having babies'

Published: 02/02/2013 at 12:45 AM

(Weekly Standard) In a new book on demographics set to be published next week, Jonathan V. Last writes that pets now outnumber children 4 to 1 in America. The book is titled What to Expect When No One’s Expecting.

“The pet market has been steadily increasing in America since the 1980s, with people not only acquiring more furry little dependents, but spending more on them, too,” writes Last, a colleague of mine at THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

“In 1994 Americans spent $1.7 billion on pets; by 2008 that number had risen to $4.3 billion. By 2010, even in the face of a massive recession, it had climbed over $4.8 billion. The evidence suggests that pets are increasingly treated like actual family members: In 1998, the average dog-owning American household spent $383 on medical care for their dogs; by 2006, that figure had risen to $672.”